ORIGIN AND SPREAD. 11 



the appendix show the marked variations that have 

 characterized the areas and yield. 



FUTURE OF THE HOP INDUSTRY 



The World's Supply of hops, it will be seen, comes 

 mainly from the United States, England and Germany. 

 Great Britain imports an average of 125,000 bales of 

 hops yearly," of which 65,000 come from the United 

 States and the balance from Europe. Germany ex- 

 ports about 130,000 bales per year, and imports some 

 20,000 bales; about 50,000 bales of her exports go to 

 Great Britain, the balance to other European countries 

 and to the United States. The limitation of the world's 

 market for hops is therefore clearly defined. 



The appendix tables show how both area and yield 

 are fluctuating, and throw a flood of light on the pos- 

 sible monopoly of the world's hop market by the 

 United States, and especially by our Pacific coast 

 states. The author believes such monopoly .to be pos- 

 sible, at least to the extent of the United States produc- 

 ing the largest share of the world's consumption. To 

 that end, this book is written. But if the United 

 States is to achieve that distinction, it will be by im- 

 proving the quality of American hops until they are the 

 best in the world and by producing them at less cost 

 than they can be grown elsewhere. 



The steady increase in the consumption of hops is 

 also apparent from the statistical appendix. While the 

 figures are not as perfect as desirable, because of the 

 obvious difficulty of collecting full returns, they dem- 

 onstrate a constant growth in the demand for hops. 

 Substitutes and adulterants check the use of hops to a 

 considerable extent, especially in seasons of scarcity, 

 and constitute an evil that must be suppressed. The 

 main reliance of the hop grower is the brewers' de- 

 mand. The consumption of beer, already enormous, 

 has increased astonishingly of late years, and bids fair 



